Belchernews

I've never heard 'pretentious' and 'SoCo' in the same sentence. I just can't perceive a SoCo drinker as pretentious. Shortening the name of the booze is common. For example, Tangueray and Tonic is a TnT, Seagrams 7 and 7-Up is a Seven and Seven.

And I disagree with the author on Long Island Iced Teas. They are great. I used to enjoy Vodka and cranberry (a cape-codder), but now I have developed a taste for scotch (either on the rocks or neat, but it has to be a decent brand...preferably a single-malt), and Kettle One vodka martini's straight up with 3 olives (I even shake mine like James Bond because I like them cold.)

There is no need to make things harder on local banks. Local banks have a more vested interest in the local economy. It was the large national and international banks that are the ones that need more regulation as they have demonstrated that they are not concerned with property values when they foreclosed on gotten. Despite the fact that many homeowners tried to sell their home "short", banks still foreclosed and subsequently sold the home for even less...and this was going on when they were getting bailouts. I would recommend that the Legislature take a look at the foreclosure deeds and take a good long hard look at the data before hurting local banks. I looked at foreclosure deeds in Belchertown from 2007 until a few months ago in 2012 (which was double than the 5 years before). Only 15% of foreclosures during that period were from local banks, which then sold them without hurting values. http://www.belchertown-news.com/web/belchertown-newscom/news/articles/article508.asp

"The School Committee unanimously approved a motion by Eric Weiss to refer the matter to the Property and Transportation subcommittee for review – to be considered again by the full committee in the next six months to a year."

Although I understand the budget constraints the town is facing, the so-called subcommittee consists of school committee members and the and the buildings and grounds directors. If they want to say no, they should just say no instead of dragging it out for 6 months to a year in the hopes that the public will just forget about, or lose interest in pursuing, their request? http://www.belchertownps.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=263&Itemid=474

Oh dear, now the public going to have to suffer through every gruesome detail and nuance of this split as if we were the ones engaged in this January/December romance. Good for them getting all this free publicity.

FYI. The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is to the left of what Nixon was willing to approve in the early 70's (Dems thought it wasn't progressive enough). Just a little perspective for you. This president is hardly the worst president in the history of this country...and hardly the worst president in this century. If anything, we are dealing with the worst Congress in history. I base this on the fact that the House is blocking anything this president is trying to do, with a post Citizens United 2010 midterm resulting a whole new level of incompetence (35% of the new ones never held elected office before). So, instead of working with the president to help improve the economy (and help passing the American Jobs Act), we have jokers calling contempt on on the AG for what they think happened despite proof to the contrary, a debt ceiling debate that resulted in a downgrade of our nations credit rating, and other nonsense. Citizens United will result in the worst President, Congress, and, eventually, the worst Supreme Court in history...an "Idiocracy" if you will.

Fox News is horrendous. They consistently edit video to paint an inaccurate picture of what is really going on in the world of politics. They have proven to be yellow journalism media outlet time and time again plain and simple. They have even resorted to simply making stuff up and I'm not just talking about today's Supreme Court Decision.

Tax cuts for the wealthy hasn't worked in helping build the economy neither. Convince me otherwise. The only thing that tax cuts for the wealthy has built is more wealth for the wealthy. Of course, given where Senator Brown's campaign money is coming from, it is not surprising that he has adopted the standard Republican stance on this issue.

Most of the defaulted mortgages were written by private firms (not regulated by congressional standards) who subsequently sold them to Wall Street, not to Fannie. These bad mortgages were bundled up into securities that were rated good, but were not. Those with brains actually looked at the mortgages (which most investors seldom do) in these securities and decided to bet against them through credit default swaps (insurance on the securities). What's more, most of the homes that were defaulted were not in regions that the Community Reinvestment Act affected, they were in the suburbs. So I fail to see how arguments that the mortgage crisis can be blamed on Democrats holds water. What exactly do you believe Barney Frank did to Fannie and Freddie?

Why don't they just schedule another debate sponsored by another non-partisan group with a right-winger affiliated with it to balance things out? Why is Brown afraid of Vicky Kennedy's endorsement for the opponent when it may happen regardless? He shocked the nation when he was elected and now he is afraid of a Kennedy endorsement for the opponent? It doesn't make any sense.

The real estate market could also be affected by the doubling of interest rates on student loans. This is based on the fact that the so-called "echo-boomers", aged between 17 and 31, are believed to be the home buyers of the next 20 years (with baby-boomers providing much of the housing inventory). A doubling of the rate increase on student loans will increase their debt-to-income ratio making it harder to get a mortgage. This, in addition to the other challenges new graduates face in this economy.

I think that the Brown campaign is overreaching by demanding that Vicky Kennedy personally remain neutral by not endorsing a candidate because the Kennedy Institute is "non-partisan". However, I guess that this logic is in keeping with the whole notion that corporations are people. I

"This month's event will follow a long tradition at the Pentagon of recognizing diversity in America's armed forces. Hallway displays and activities, for example, have marked Black History Month and Asian-Pacific American Heritage Month."